Around 6 am on the morning of Friday May 13th a mother was up preparing breakfast while her daughter and her new puppy slept peacefully in a bedroom of their nearly 100 year old home on 22nd Avenue in a historic downtown Forest Grove neighborhood. Suddenly the pan caught fire on the stove and the mother ran to a neighbor's for a fire extinguisher. The fire in the pan grew and in the seconds it took for the mother to grab a fire extinguisher the fire was already out of control. Scared for her daughter and unable to enter the home, the mother ran to the back of the house and beat on the window eventually awaking her daughter who kicked out the glass and jumped from the window to safety. The new puppy, just weeks old, hid scared in a corner of the bedroom.
By now someone had called 9-1-1 and firefighters from Forest Grove, Cornelius, and Hillsboro were on their way; our own Station 4 was just a few blocks away and firefighters could already see a dark cloud of smoke rising into the still morning air above the neighborhood. When the engines arrived there was heavy fire pouring from the windows and crews worked to knock that fire down so that they could safely enter the burning structure.
Just weeks before we graduated eleven new volunteer firefighters from their Training Academy. It was our largest graduating class in recent years and on the morning of the fire four of the eleven were with our crews on the fire. One of them, a 30 year old husband and father of two young children, named Scott Jewell was assigned to go into the home with his crew and extinguish the fire. While searching the home Firefighter Jewell found a small black puppy. Surprisingly despite the fire completely gutting the rest of the home, the puppy was alive and well and Firefighter Jewell snatched it up and carefully carried it to safety. Outside the home Firefighter Jewell carefully handed the puppy off the caring hands of its' grateful owner who asked the name of her puppy's rescuer. Firefighter Jewell introduced himself and the young lady thought for a moment and told Scott that she would name the puppy "Jewell" after her new found hero.
Volunteer Firefighter Scott Jewell with one of the residents that escaped the burning home and her puppy "Jewell"
Luckily, everyone escaped the fire and no one was injured. Unfortunately, the fire destroyed the home and only a handful of the family's possessions could be saved - they did not have renter's insurance. The Forest Grove Firefighters Association has started a fund to collect money to help the family recover. If you are interested in helping we are accepting cash donations only at this time because the family has no means of storing other household donations. You can call 503.992.3240 to find out how you can help the family.
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